Artists on the World's Frontlines

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William Cleveland is the founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés is an American poet, cantadora, psychoanalyst, and post-trauma specialist.

Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Nothern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Lost Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artist who resolve conflict and heal unspeakable trauma.

Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation.
Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.
Art can be a powerful agent of personal, institutional and community change. The stories in this book have valuable implications for artists, academics, educators, human service providers, philanthropists, and community leaders throughout the world. The artists documented in the book have generated new technologies for advocacy, organizing, peacemaking, healing trauma and the rebuilding of community. Creativity is our most powerful capacity, and it can mitigate and heal our most destructive tendencies.